Lucasfilm/Disney(NEW YORK) — That “boom” you might have heard around quarter to eight Eastern time this morning was the collective explosion of Star Wars fans’ heads upon Good Morning America‘s exclusive release of the final trailer to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
The new footage cements what actor Mads Mikkelsen accidentally gave away during an interview months ago: he plays the father of Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso. We discover in the new footage that he is central to the creation of the Death Star, likely forced by the Empire to build it.
Erso is sprung from an Imperial pokey and tasked with a mission to steal plans to the weapon which famously blew up Princess Leia’s adoptive planet of Alderaan in 1977’s original Star Wars adventure, which takes place after the events in this film.
As you might remember in Episode IV, Leia stows the plans in the rusty innards of R2-D2 in that film, and her fellow Rebels eventually find the space station’s Achilles heel: a thermal exhaust port into which Luke Skywalker fired a pair of proton torpedoes, blowing up the whole deal.
The trailer shows Jyn’s band of freedom fighters have their work cut out for them, having to contend not only with the Empire’s military might, but with ambitious Imperial Director Orson Krennic, played by Ben Mendelsohn, and Darth Vader himself.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will hit theaters Dec. 16, released by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
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